Coupling for floating bridge girders



March4,1958 HS'EDLACEK m-L 2,825,077

COUPLING FOR FLOATING BRIDGE GIRDERS V Filed March 14, 1955 V Inventor. #o a ieakwk Unite States Pattern 1.;

COUPLING FOR FLOATING BRIDGE GIRDERS Hugo Sedlacek, Rheinhausen-Hochemmerich, and Herbert Hermann Riiser, Rheinhausen, Germany, assignors t Aktiengeselischaft fiir Unternehmungen der Eisenand Stahlindustrie, Essen, Germany Application March 14, 1955, Serial No. 493,962

Claims priority, application Germany March 18, 1954 1 Claim. (Cl. 1427) The present invention relates to portable bridges and, more particularly concerns a coupling for use in connection with floating bridge girders of portable bridges.

In order to be able also to employ portable bridges as floating bridges, bridge girders are individually mounted on floats and are then floated to the place of employment where the bridge girders are coupled together to form a floating bridge crossing the entire water. To this end, the ends of the bridge girders are provided with appropriate coupling devices. The known couplings for floating bridge girders have the drawback that, when the bridge ends are located at different heights, additional devices have to be employed in order to compensate for said difference in height.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention-to provide a coupling for use in connection with floating bridge girders, which will overcome the above mentioned drawback.

It is another object of this invention to provide a coupling arrangement for use in connection with portable bridges, which will make it possible without additional devices to couple bridge girders together so that their ends will be substantially at the same level even though they might be at difierent levels prior to being coupled together.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates a side view of the ends of two bridge girders coupled to each other by an arrangement according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a side view on a somewhat larger scale of the coupling according to the invention in closed condition.

Fig. 3 represents a section taken along the line III-III of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a side view similar to that of Fig. 2 showing the ends of bridge girders at different levels.

The drawback of the heretofore known coupling arrangements for floating bridge girders as outlined above has been overcome according to the present invention by providing each end post of each bridge girder with a coupling member having connected thereto two coupling bolts having protruding ends and being located at diiterent heights, coupling means being provided which are adapted to be tightened and which comprise stirrups adapted to be suspended over said coupling bolts. Expediently, at the level of the lower coupling bolts said coupling members have respectively arranged a butt plate which at its abutting surface is provided with 'ice a stud and a bore adjacent each other, said stud and bore respectively being adapted to engage a bore and a stud of the coupling member of the next following end post.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, each of the end posts 1 and 2 of the bridge girders 3 and 4 is respectively provided with a coupling member 5 and 6 while use is made of the connecting bores thereon. Connected to each coupling member 5, 6 are coupling bolts 7 and 8 respectively which have laterally protruding ends and are arranged at difierent heights. The ends of the coupling bolts 7, 8 are provided with circular grooves 9. Stirrups 10 of coupling means may be suspended on the coupling bolts and may be tightened by means of screw spindles 11 in the manner of a turnbuckle. With the ends of the bridge girders located at the same level (Figs. 1 and 2), the coupling means interconnect the coupling bolts 8 so that the bridge girders can be tightly pulled toward each other. However, when the ends of the bridge girders are located at different levels, the coupling means are arranged so as to effect a connection between a lower coupling bolt of one bridge girder and an upper coupling bolt of the other bridge girder (Fig. 4) so that the different levels can be equalized by tightening the coupling means. At the level of the lower coupling bolts, each of the coupling members 5, 6 has respectively connected thereto in any convenient manner, for instance, by welding, a butt plate 12 which has a conical stud 13 and a bore 14 arranged adjacent thereto. These studs and bores engage each other in pairs when the ends of the bridge girders are at the same level and convey the transverse forces occurring in the coupling.

it is, of course, understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular construction shown in the drawing but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claim.

What we claim is:

A coupling arrangement coupling together the ends of two floating bridge girders, which comprises in combination: two coupling members respectively fixedly connected to the girder ends to be coupled together, two pairs of coupling bolts respectively carried by said coupling members, each of said pairs of coupling bolts comprising a lower bolt having its longitudinal axis located in a first horizontal plane and a higher bolt having its longitudinal axis located in a second horizontal plane higher than said first horizontal plane, said bolts extending in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction of said girders, two butt plates respec tively connected to said coupling members at substantially the level of said lower bolts, each of said butt plates being provided with a stud and a bore, the stud of one butt plate engaging the bore of the other butt plate when said girder ends are at the same level, and coupling means variable in length selectively engaging and connecting a lower bolt of one girder with a higher bolt of the other girder or interconnecting the lower or higher bolts of said girders.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 858,965 Dever July 2, 1907 1,640,980 Caroni Aug. 30, 1927 1,851,026 Weiskopf Mar. 29, 1932 2,291,014 Woody July 28, 1942 

